Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion Wiki Guide

General - Fixer Primer

Fixer's are one of the most popular professions in AO. This is due to a couple of reasons, firstly they were the first profession to receive a lot of attention from Funcom as they were a very difficult class to play

when the game launched. Since then the profession has had a lot of

focus from the Developers and is now one of the most robust and useful of all the professions

The thing about Fixers is that they are a little bit of a Jack-of-all-trades of a profession, they can use their nano-formulas, fight solo, travel quickly, are decent at tradeskills, can be a stealthy

character if you want and are useful in a team.

They are not without their downsides, we'll take about that later, and also benefit from you having a very good idea about where you want to take them in terms of progression before you start as they can be a profession that use IP's tighter then any other profession.

I'll go through the various aspects of a Fixer one by one, but first we will cover the major downside of a Fixer.

Nano SkillsAll your nano skills are dark blue and expensive to raise in terms of IP, get used to this! You will constantly be 'behind' in the QL of nanos you can use, even with a major implant set your skills won't match

a nano casting profession. Nano Skills are your major IP sink as a

Fixer.Worse still is that the nanos that are useful to yourself and others

use skills that span all the various nano skills! Some are more vital

then others though.

HoT (Heal over Time) Line of NanosThese are your life blood, there are two lines of these HoT's, and they stack with each other. One line heals low amounts of health very quickly and has a short duration, the other heals larger amounts more slowly but over a longer period. These nanos require Mat Met, Bio Met and Time Space. Run Speed / Evades BuffsThese are another good line of nanos that boost your runspeed (as well as team versions). Higher level versions also boost evades which is

very helpful. This line requires Time Space and Sensory Imp

Grid NanosThis is a vital line as it allows you to teleport into the grid without needing to be at a grid terminal. There are two types - firstly slow casting ones that teleport you safely into the grid and then a quick cast line that teleport you in but reduce your HP and NP to 1. These allow you to escape from harm in dangerous situations. There are also team versions available.

You will also have access to the special Fixer grid (through a quest) that uses a nano along the same lines

This line requires Sen Imp, Phy Mod and Mat Met.

Stealth BuffsFixers are the hackers of Rubi-Ka, and they get a series of buffs that raise Breaking and Entering, sneak attack, concealment and perception. These require Phy Mod and Sense Imp.

Summon NanosFixers can summon armour, ammo and weapons with nanos. However compared to the items you will be using at the levels you will get the nanos these items are next to useless. This line uses Matter Creation, so many Fixers choose not to raise that nano skill

Grid ArmourSo from the above it might seem that just not bothering with Matter Creation would be a good choice, however there is one more thing to consider that was added to the game. Fixer Grid Armour!

If you have played AO at all you will have seen Grid Armour, it's the bright blue folk you keep seeing! No, it wasn't a graphics bug that you saw that made players turn that color.

This is a special type of armour that works by raising the Fixers evades to massive levels, making them very hard to hit. To use this armour you need Matter Creation.

However the discs required to make a Grid Armour Nano are very, very

rare. To buy one will usually cost you in excess of 50 million credits.
Therefore I wouldn't recommend raising your Matter Creation skill until
you are lucky enough to get your hands on one.

Nano-Programming InterfaceHelp is at hand though for all these dark blue nano skills. You can make a very handy item that adds to all your nano skills and levels with

you. All you do is buy a nano programming interface from any tool

vendor and use a lock pick on it.

Then every time you level just right click on it and it will level up with you!

Types of FixerSo, as mentioned above give that IP's are such a premium for Fixers,

it really pays to know what you want to do with your Fixer before you

get too far.

'Pure' FixerIf you want to focus on leveling and be as powerful in a fight as possible you will want to max your SMG and Burst for your weapon, your evades as well as the base attributes for those skills. Then with the remainder raise your nano skills as high as possible for the best HoT you can use. You will have very little exp left over if you follow this path. (Given you are raising things like Treatment that everyone needs as well)

Stealthy FixerFixers spying skills are all green and relatively inexpensive to raise, Fixers can be very effective stealthy types, however something will have to give to spare the IP required. Given that Breaking and Entering is used in many tradeskill processes this is never a bad skill to raise. It will also allow you to break into mission chest with greater safety then other professions.

Tradeskill FixerContrary to popular belief this is a feasible choice, but the IP's required will mean that you have to sacrifice something else. It is probably best left to a bit after level 100 and even then that you choose one particular type of tradeskill to follow, be it weapons production, armour or whatever.

Going for something in between might run the risk of leaving you decent at many things, but not all that special at anything in particular.

Breed ChoiceSo which breed makes the best Fixer? To be honest there isn't really

a bad choice to make here apart from a nanomage, and even that is not

impossible. Given the adaptability mentioned above any of the professions could make a good Fixer, it just depends on the type of Fixer you want to be!.

Atrox: An atrox will struggle even more with nano skills due to their base abilities, however they do have added Stamina and are more durable in combat. The stamina will also help with the Fixer only Padded

Love armour later on.

Solitus: As with any profession the solitus is a fairly safe choice,

no real strengths of weaknesses many Fixers choose the Solitus.

Opifex: Good Agility and Sense make for better evades, although you could struggle with HP due to their dark blue Stamina.

Fixer only Cyborg Death Squad armour uses Str/Agi though so they are not a bad choice.

NanoMage: Good Intelligence and Psy help with troublesome Nano skills, but the lack of HP just doesn't make the nanomage a very good choice for a Fixer.

Base AbilitiesThe Fixer can wear many armour (with Solitus having the most diverse

choices due to standard base abilities). Many Fixer's go for Sen/Agi

armour so they can use Death Squad armour later on. The MSG / Burst combo that your weapons require will benefit from keeping your Str, Agi and Sta maxed.

If you want to help your Nano Skills raising intelligence never hurts, but probably isn't as vital.

WeaponsObviously, the best choice for a Fixer is a sub machine gun (SMG). There are a lot of great SMG's out there and Fixer rarely agree about which is best, I will give you a few guns to keep an eye out for.

OT-Kerans A good quick weapon which means faster bursts. This is a solid choice used by many Fixers

Mauuser Particle Streamer / Chemical Mauuser These are slower then the Kerans but pack a larger punch, a tradeskill process can turn a mauuser into a chemical version which is slightly better as it uses Chemical Damage.

Manex The behemoth of the Fixer's arsenal, a very slow weapon, but it does massive damage and huge bursts. At low levels the huge hits make

a big difference, however at later levels you will need very high

Ranged Initiative to use this weapon as valid option.

Sol Chronis These can only be found in team missions as weapon receptacles and require tradeskills to make the finished weapon, if you manage that though they are a very viable option.

ATI Aleph Store bought weapon that adds nicely to Stamina at later levels, it's the poor relation damage wise of the others above, but is a

decent alternative if you are having problems finishing any of the

above

Lastly there is a very special unique weapon that can be found in the Foreman's Office Static dungeon, it's called a Gamma Ejector and it is level restricted so you have to level 41 to use it. It is an awesome weapon though and will be your weapon of choice until level 80 or so.

The Fixer ShopFixers also have access to a special shop after they have 180 Breaking and Entry, it can be found in Borealis and contains a wealth of

nice items including your Fixer Special attack, the Cluster Bullet.

So where is it?The short answer? It's found around 440x400 in the Borealis subzone of Azure Lake. Finding it for the first time isn't as easy as knowing the co-ordinates though! Get to the Neutral City of Borealis, which can be reached by Whom-pah from either Stret West or Newland.

If you have a Yalmaha you can fly straight South-West over the city walls and you will come to a mountain across a lake, you will notice a narrow path across the lake leading to the mountain. Along the length of

the mountain you will see it is circled by a road and some small shack

settlements along it.

If you are on foot, turn left out of the Whom-pah (if you came from Newland that is, straight ahead if you came from Stret West) and you will see a gateway on the left wall. Go through the gate and turn right over some hills, follow the wall on your right until you see the lake. As you approach you will see the path that splits the two sections of lake, head across the path and up the slope towards the fenced of shacks

you will see as you approach.

If you follow the fence to our right you will find it stops short of the actual mountain so you can get inside to the shacks.

You will then see a bunch of junk like in the screenshot to the right here. Believe it or not the vendor is actually hidden away in there. Click on the big tire to the far right of the screenshot to open the vendor.

Anything else.....?Well Fixer's are a diverse profession that benefit from some very unique abilities. They can be very good fun to play, but suffer from tight IP's, if you can see past that you'll have great fun on Rubi-Ka as